News

50000 LEDs installed across National Car Parks

50,000 LED luminaires have been installed by National Car Parks (NCP)
since January, almost bringing phase one of the multi-million pound
project to a close.

Phase one of the £10 million project includes
the installation of over 60,000 LED luminaires across 149 multi-storey
car parks throughout the UK – from Scotland to the South Coast. NCP is
effectively relighting 45,000 car parking spaces. The retrofit is
expected to save 11,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year and
slash energy consumption on car park lighting by 65 per cent.

The
fittings are being supplied and installed by Future Energy Solutions
(FES). Phase two of the project is expected to take another two or three
years. The contract is funded by FES in partnership with the Green
Investment Bank, eliminating the need for any up-front capital from NCP.
Instead, NCP will pay out of the energy cost savings over time.

All
the installations are maintained for the life of the contract at no
extra cost to NCP. FES is installing around 22 types of LED fitting
across NCP’s car park stock. One example of the retrofit underway
includes the swap out of single 50W T8 fluorescent tubes for 29W LED
alternatives.

FES commercial director Marcus Brodin told Lighting:
“NCP’s CO2 emissions will be reduced by 11,000 tonnes per annum and
mono-nitrogen oxide will be lowered by 248lbs over the same period. This
is the equivalent of 10,924 trees being saved or filling up 321,695
fuel tanks every year.”

This is the first transport infrastructure
project to qualify for the Government’s UK Guarantee scheme, which was
launched in 2013 and which NCP says was vital to the success of this
opportunity. NCP manages more than 150,000 car parking spaces across
more than 500 car parks up and down the country, and expects the LED
retrofit to lead to multi-million pound savings on energy over the
lifetime of the new luminaires.

FES has is using a variety of
controls across the NCP car parks, depending on the needs of individual
spaces. “We have site-specific controls, it depends on the nature of the
car park,” explained Brodin. “Strictly speaking we have a load of PIR
controls in over half of the luminaires, along with daylight harvesting;
the rest are standard or emergency fittings.”

Bodin said the
contract does not have a clear end date, as NCP is constantly growing.
“Every year NCP wins new contracts with councils or builds new car
parks, so it’ll be on going. It’s a moving feast constantly.”